Evil Queen's Palace
The Dark Palace is an Enchanted Forest location on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It first appears in the second episode of the first season. History Prince Leopold marries Eva and rule over the kingdom as King and Queen. Their daughter, Snow White, is soon to have a coming-of-age celebration. Prior to this, Eva wishes to gift her daughter with a tiara that has been passed down their maternal family line. When Snow White catches the palace servant, Johanna, trying the tiara on, she gives the woman an arrogant scolding; sneering that attendants don't wear crowns. Displeased by her own daughter's unkindness, Eva schools her on the significance of the coming-of-age celebration, which is for Snow White to demonstrate to the kingdom's people that she can be a kind and gracious ruler in the future. Having learned her lesson, Snow White tries on the tiara; only for Eva to collapse and be bed-ridden with a mysterious illness. Behind the scenes, Cora, who wishes to install her own daughter, Regina, as Queen, has deliberately poisoned Eva. She also disguises herself as the Blue Fairy and tries to lure a desperate Snow White into using dark magic to heal Eva by trading someone else's life for hers. Unable to go through with it, Snow White guiltily admits this to her dying mother, who proudly praises her for staying on the side of goodness. After Eva succumbs, a public funeral is held. Once everyone is gone from the service, Cora arrives to speak to Eva's corpse; claiming she will corrupt Snow White and make Regina the new Queen. Years later, Regina is soon-to-be married to King Leopold, yet she is anything but pleased by the arrangement. She expresses unhappiness to her father, Henry, and questions him on how Cora became so obsessed with power. Henry remembers Cora learning magic through a spell book. Curious, Regina pilfers the book from under her mother's pillow and accidentally summons a wizard, Rumplestiltskin, who expresses interest in helping her get rid of Cora for good. He gives her a looking glass, which looks like an ordinary mirror, but can send someone to another world. The day before her wedding, Regina attempts to push her mother into the looking glass, but Cora binds her in place with magic. Urged on by an apparition of Rumplestiltskin, Regina breaks free and shoves Cora through the looking glass portal. Soon after, Regina, on her journey out of the kingdom, returns the spell book to Rumplestiltskin. Nonetheless, he persuades her to learn from him to master the magical arts. As Regina is taught by Rumplestiltskin, she has trouble learning a conjuring spell. In the land of Oz, Regina's secret half-sister, Zelena, watches jealously. Using a pair of slippers, she travels to Regina's palace and tries on her sister's clothing. Zelena successfully performs the conjuring spell; causing Rumplestiltskin to mistake her for Regina. At first, he is skeptical of her claims of being Cora's first-born child until testing her genetics to be certain. Rumplestiltskin becomes her magic instructor, but she reacts angrily upon discovering he is still teaching Regina as well. Zelena attempts to get rid of the competition by killing her sister, who is revealed to be Rumplestiltskin in disguise. Rumplestiltskin disqualifies Zelena from casting his created curse, which Regina will enact and take him to a Land Without Magic. He backtracks when she points out her slippers that are capable of travelling worlds, but Zelena is too angry at his previous rejection and leaves for Oz. Later, on the palace balcony, Regina succeeds in the conjuring spell, and Rumplestiltskin praises her as his "best pupil". Though Regina excels in magic, she has an unwillingness to let go of the past and wishes to have her true love, Daniel, back, though Cora killed him. The doctor, Victor Frankenstein, examines Daniel's preserved body and states that his “condition is ideal” and that the chances for resurrecting her true love are fairly good. The doctor insists he needs a strong enough heart to survive the procedure and believes that the Enchanted Forest has magic hearts strong enough for the operation. Regina, Dr. Frankenstein, and Jefferson make their way to Cora's secret vault for a beating heart which will assist in the attempted resurrection of Daniel. Unfortunately for Regina the whole thing is a setup; meant to make her heartbroken and bring out the evil queen that Rumplestiltskin knows resides within her. The doctor informs her that the operation was a failure and, as expected, Regina turns her anger inward and goes back to Rumplestiltskin, ready now to become his full-fledged apprentice. Despite Regina's decision to focus on magic, her life as Queen causes much unhappiness since King Leopold is only focused on his dead wife and insufferable young daughter. She skips out on a scheduled magic lesson, to which Rumplestiltskin shows up at her castle. He chides that Regina cannot leave this life, even though she thinks there are choices in having love or darkness. Rumplestiltskin states that what she doesn't know is that darkness is what will consume her. Upset at his words, Regina orders him to leave. Instead, Rumplestiltskin explains further that once the darkness has started to eat away at her, it will progress until she is swallowed whole, and there's no way to fly away from fate. Before leaving, he sets up lessons for tomorrow and stresses she must bring the only thing inside herself, which is simmering rage. After he is gone, Regina retreats to the balcony and lashes out by hitting the railing repeatedly. The foundation gives way, and she begins falling to her death, but is rescued by a fairy's magic and lifted to safety. She and the fairy, Tinker Bell, become friends and the fairy decides to help Regina to find her true love, a man with a lion tattoo, in an inn. Only after Tinker Bell leaves, Regina is too frightened to go through with it and flees. Late in the hours of the same night, Tinker Bell returns to see how the meeting went, and is discouraged to see Regina is not "glowing" as she should be after finding her true love. Grumpily, Regina makes up lies about the man, but Tinker Bell realizes she was too scared to meet the man. Even so, Regina refuses to own up to her own emotions and calls Tinker Bell a horrible fairy. Tinker Bell pleads that she will get in trouble for stealing pixie dust, but Regina coldly sends her away. King Leopold picks up a lamp, and accidentally summons out the Genie of Agrabah, who grants him three wishes. One of those wishes is used by King Leopold to wish the genie free from the lamp. He takes his new friend back with him to the palace and introduces him to his wife, Queen Regina, and his daughter, Snow White. During King Leopold's birthday celebration, the Genie notices how her husband neglects Regina. Later, he secretly gifts Regina a mirror as he believes she is the fairest in all the land. Regina manipulates the situation in her favor by falsifying evidence in her diary that she is now in love with the man who gave her the mirror. When King Leopold finds out, he locks up his wife while sending the Genie to find her supposed lover. Regina's father, Henry, asking the Genie to deliver a box to his daughter, which will give her freedom. Upon opening it, Regina reveals she intends to commit suicide by letting vipers poison her. The Genie, desiring to have a future with Regina, has a viper bite her husband to death. He returns to tell Regina the news, but she asks that he leave since the vipers will be traced back to him. The Genie realizes Regina has only been using him, but cannot accept being apart from her. He uses the last wish to always be with her, which imprisons him into the same mirror he once gifted her. While her husband is away on a diplomatic mission, Regina and her stepdaughter are left to oversee the kingdom. Peasants seek help about a bandit named Dead Eye who is harassing their villages, and Snow White promises to send word to her father on the matter, but since the problem is urgent, Regina suggests her stepdaughter handle the situation instead. Fearful of being a leader, Snow White hastily apologizes and flees the throne room. After Dead Eye has a run-in with Snow White at a village, he arrives to the palace, telling the Queen that he did as she asked. For his help, Regina hands him a bag of coins, stating she has more for him later. Dead Eye asks if she wants him to just kill the princess, but Regina declines, as she wants the kingdom's people to see Snow White is not a capable ruler. After King Leopold's death, Regina puts on public face of mourning her husband's passing, even offers Snow White condolences, but truthfully, she is planning to hire someone to assassinate the princess. The Magic Mirror suggests using a Huntsman, who is later hauled into Regina's palace for the job. She promises to forbid the hunting of wolves; animals he wishes to protect, and the Huntsman agrees to fulfill his end of the bargain. Disguised as a soldier, he approaches Snow White, though the princess knows the Queen sent him to kill her. She flees into the woods to jolt down a farewell letter to Regina and hand it to the Huntsman. He is incredibly moved by her words and allows her to escape. Before returning to the palace, he takes a deer's heart as a replacement. In front of the Queen, the Huntsman tries to read Snow White's letter to her, but she impatiently throws it into the furnace and asks for the heart. Believing her nemesis is dead, the Queen tries to magically place it into one of her vault boxes, but none open. With this, she realizes Snow White is still alive. As payment for his deception, the Queen takes the Huntsman's heart; enslaving him. Retiring for the day, Regina sits in front of her bedroom mirror while her father brushes her hair. Cora enters, telling Henry to get out, before she tells Regina about finding her soulmate who has a lion tattoo. Regina doesn't believe her mother truly wants happiness for her, but when Cora transforms her into wearing a white dress, she opens up to the possibility. Soon, her soulmate arrives, bearing the lion tattoo that Regina expects. The pair go to the garden, where Regina sits under her apple tree and tells him about how she and a stable boy she loved used it as their meeting spot. He considers how lowly a stable boy is and uses it as proof she's since risen above that station. Regina has doubts about that, but he suggests a strong man like him can protect a "weak" woman like her. Perturbed by his words, Regina's suspicion spikes, as he covers up his mistake by replacing "weak" with "feminine". Grasping his right arm, she unceremoniously casts a spell on his tattoo as he attempts to kiss her. The tattoo, springing to life as a miniature lion, attacks him. Realizing Cora set her up, she demands the truth from the man, who reveals her mother wanted her to have a child. After imprisoning the man in the dungeon, Regina confronts Cora, believing she is trying to seize the throne through an heir. To foil these plans, she drinks a potion and makes herself barren. Before leaving, Cora advises her daughter that she is standing in the way of her own happiness. |-|Alternate Timeline= Discovering a woman, Maid Marian, aided Snow White's escape, the Queen has her thrown into the dungeon and sentenced to death for the following day. That night, the Queen imprisons another person, Princess Leia, who is guilty of the same crime. While Prince Charles, Prince Charming and Red Riding Hood break into the prison, Princess Leia and Marian escape from their cells and regroup with them. In the castle bedroom, the Queen studies an apple while seated in front of a dresser. From behind, Snow White attempts to sneak up on her, but the Queen calmly acknowledges the latter's presence. However, she becomes worried upon realizing Snow White intends to use dark fairy dust on her. As the dust is flung, the Queen quickly uses magic to deflect it onto the floor. Before being taken by the guards, Snow White tries to explain what she did years ago—telling Cora about Regina's love, Daniel, was an honest mistake. The Queen snaps that she never learned that actions have consequences, and then sentences her to an immediate execution. In the courtyard, Snow White is tied to a post while clutching some remaining fairy dust. From inside the castle, Princess Leia and her allies watch in horror as the Queen conjures a large fireball and hurls it at Snow White. Before the flame reaches its target, Snow White uses the dust to turn herself into a bug to elude death. Later on, the Queen discovers her nemesis is still alive and attempting to cross the Troll Bridge. She commands the trolls to capture Snow White, but the creatures fail. Angered, the Queen turns them into bugs. Stomping on one as an example, she threatens to do the same to one of her guards if he doesn't bring her Snow White. In the forest, the Queen captures a Woodcutter, whose children, Gretel and Hansel, begin wandering in search of him. She enlists the two to fetch an item from a Blind Witch's house, and promises to help them find their father. Inside the house, the Blind Witch is pushed into an oven by Gretel. In turn, the Queen, from her castle, then casts a spell to burn the Blind Witch to death. The children return and Gretel hands over the procured item—a shining red poisoned apple. The Queen congratulates the girl, saying that she reminds her of herself at her age, and states the apple is a weapon for a particular enemy. Gretel asks her to keep her promise, but the Queen insists they deserve better than a father who abandoned them. Gretel continues to ask for him, though the Queen, impressed by the children, suggests they live with her instead. She tells the Queen she would never live with someone as terrible as her, and that they will prove her wrong. Angry at being rejected, Queen casts a spell, surrounding them in a vortex of smoke, and send them to the Infinite Forest. Then, she watches through the mirror as Snow White meets with the dwarves. Bringing in the imprisoned Woodcutter, the Queen informs him that his children are gone and they believe he has abandoned them. She questions him about why his children are so loyal to him. He attests that they are a family and will always find each other. Deviously, she agrees that they can be together when they reunite, and then sends him to the Infinite Forest as well, where all three will wander in search of each other forever. On Regina's birthday, her father Henry notices his daughter is upset about Snow White again. He tries to persuade her to give up on revenge, and that Cora is to blame for Daniel's death, not Snow White. Henry insists Cora wants her to be a heartless queen, but Regina denies her mother has any control over her. Since Regina won't listen to him, Henry summons Cora through the Magic Mirror. Because Cora believes they should be helping Regina kill Snow White, Henry tries to end the conversation, only for Cora to appear in the nearby looking glass. Rejecting any more help from her, Henry declares he is going to talk to Snow White. After he is gone, Cora steps out from the looking glass, having the ability to return because of Henry's summoning. Later, Cora steals Snow White's heart and presents it to Regina. Through the palace mirror, Regina gets a glimpse of Snow White toasting with her friends, stating she hopes her stepmother spends every birthday not finding her. Angered at the remark, Regina squeezes the heart and continually increases her grip on it, watching with delight as Snow White grows increasingly frantic. However, when a drunk Jiminy pops out from Snow White's shirt, giving way to a moment of hilarity, Regina crushes the heart, discovering the heart belongs to a Black Knight. Realizing her father is responsible, she confronts him for his meddling. He attests that it was for her own good because killing Snow White will make her dark like Cora, and this way, Regina has a chance at redemption. Regina shrinks her father and traps him in a box, later showing her handiwork to Cora, who she banishes back to Wonderland. Before the Magic Mirror pulls Cora away into the looking glass, Regina explains that she cast a non-reversable spell to close the looking glass' portal, to ensure Cora can never return. Regina boasts she would rather be alone than with her mother, to which Cora snatches the box containing Henry, taking him with her back to Wonderland. Intending to rescue Henry from the Queen of Hearts, Regina requests Jefferson's assistance to travel to another world, with the power of his magic hat. Despite having retired from this life, Jefferson agrees, in exchange for riches to provide his daughter, Grace, with a fulfilling childhood. Arriving at her castle, he pulls the hat out of a box and spins it on the ground. When it transforms into a large vortex, they hold hands and jump into the portal together. After freeing Henry, the Queen tricks Jefferson and entraps him in the other world, while she returns to the Enchanted Forest with her father. The Queen, Regina, spies on Snow White and Ariel at the Under the Sea celebration honoring the sea goddess Ursula. To kill two birds with one stone, she disguises herself as Ursula in order to tempt Ariel with a magic bracelet that can help her remain human, so she can be with her prince, Eric, but only if someone takes her place as mermaid. As Regina had hoped, Ariel clasps the bracelet on Snow White; making the princess helpless with a new-found tail. However, when Ariel discovers the manipulation, she distracts Regina long enough to escape with Snow White. The Queen gets back at Ariel by stealing her voice, and later returns to her palace. In one of the mirrors, Ursula makes herself known and plunges out her tentacles to entrap the Queen. Deeply offended at the masquerading ploy, she threatens if it happens again, the Queen will find out exactly how real Ursula is. As Prince Charming is trying to break out of his cell in the dungeon, a pair of guards arrive to escort him to his execution. However, he manages to escape with the help a guard, who is revealed to be the Huntsman. Later, the Evil Queen is furious upon discovery that the prince is gone from the palace and prepares to punish the Huntsman for his incompetence when the Magic Mirror reveals where her escaped prisoner is now. Via magic, she entraps Prince Charming in the Infinite Forest. Eventually, Prince Charming leaves the Infinite Forest, with the help of Rumplestiltskin, to awaken Snow White with true love's kiss, which the Magic Mirror witnesses. While being carried to the Queen by a knight, he warns not to be dropped or else a curse of fourteen years will be unleashed. Hastening towards the Queen's apple tree garden, the Magic Mirror shows her a curseless Snow White being proposed to by Prince Charming. Enraged, the Queen immediately makes plans to confront the two. After being banished from the kingdom by Snow White and Prince Charming, the Queen is visited by Rumplestiltskin, who informs her of the upcoming royal wedding. She cares little for this information seeing as harming Snow White is no longer possible. However, Rumplestiltskin reminds her that though her enemies can no longer be harmed in this land, they can in another realm. This causes the Queen to recall that the Dark Curse can give her just that, and immediately makes plans to crash Snow White and Prince Charming's wedding. At the wedding, the Queen vows to destroy everyone's happiness. She steals back the Dark Curse from a fellow witch, Maleficent, but her first attempt to cast it fails miserably. Her father suggests she speak to the maker of the curse, Rumplestiltskin, and also warns her there is no going back from revenge. Bitterly, she wonders what there is to go back to. From Rumplestiltskin, the Queen learns the key ingredient for the curse is sacrificing the heart of the person she loves most. Visibly shocked, she returns to the palace and confesses this to her father. Unsure what to do, yet unable to let go of her anger towards Snow White, she turns to him for advice. Henry suggests they can start afresh as a family, which she agrees with. As they hug, however, she rips out his heart; knowing her own happiness is not possible in this world. A vengeful pirate named Hook breaks into a palace cell holding the Queen's prisoner, Belle. Claiming that Rumplestiltskin is attacking her father, he asks for a cursed dagger to stop the Dark One. Belle has no knowledge of the weapon, to which Hook knocks her out; having no more use for her. As he raises his hooked arm to kill her, the Queen stops him. She knows of his vendetta against Rumplestiltskin and agrees to help him if he travels to Wonderland to murder her mother. The Queen explains she is going to cast a curse to take everyone to a land without magic and Rumplestiltskin will be powerless there. She sends him to Wonderland with a dead soldier's corpse since travelling through the magic hat requires the same amount of people to pass to and from to a realm. Hook later returns with her mother's corpse, though he actually struck a deal with Cora to allow her to get close enough to kill Regina. Once the body is laid to rest in an uncovered tomb, Regina admits to Cora that she is her weakness, and thus needed her dead. After placing a red rose on Cora's chest, she leaves to enact the curse. }} Regina and Robin Hood infiltrate the palace through an underground tunnel. They reach the vault, which is strangely open. Once they reach the bedroom, Regina begins mixing a Sleeping Curse for herself that she wants to use after bringing down the palace barrier as promised to Snow White and Prince Charming. Robin Hood insists she still has a future to live for, but Regina can't envision having one while being forever apart from her son, Henry. After deactivating the barrier, she prepares to take the Sleeping Curse until Zelena intrudes on the moment. The witch reveals herself as Regina's half-sister and promises to take everything away from her. After Zelena has vacated the palace, Regina, motivated by a new enemy, decides to live to destroy her. Settling into the palace, Snow White confesses to Prince Charming that they are expecting a child soon. Plagued with fears of disappointing his second child as he did with Emma, Prince Charming seeks out a plant called night root to vanquish his worries. Instead, he meets and rescues a trapped Princess Rapunzel from a tower. She, like him, once tried to run away from fears by ingesting night root, but is ultimately pushed, with his encouragement, to overcome it on her own. Afterwards, Prince Charming takes her with him to the palace, where she is happily reunited with her parents. Once he reveals his fears to Snow White about having another baby, she reassures him that whatever the future holds for them, they'll face it together. }} The Queen's minions, the seven dwarves and Granny, are sent to hunt down Regina and Henry, however, they return empty-handed. While they are all seated in the palace's council room, Snow White learns of their failure, berating them for their stupidity. Grumpy reasons their troubles started with the Blue Fairy, who hindered them with dark fairy dust, but Granny snidely remarks that he should stop making excuses and take responsibility. As he begins making a comeback at her, the Queen asks for silence. While walking around the table, Snow White reasons that she is not angry at them, but must set an example for their failures to motivate them to do better next time. Eventually, she stops behind Doc, ripping out his heart and crushing it, as her other followers look on in terror. After Doc is dead, Snow White warns Grumpy not to fail again or she'll cut down another dwarf. Following her departure from the room, everyone remains speechless in shock, to which Doc's body slumps off the table. }} Trivia |-|On-Screen Notes= On-Screen Notes *The design of Henry's new playground castleFile:111Playground.png is similar to the dark palace. *Eva's bedchamber in the palace is the same one later used by Regina during her reign as queen.Once Upon a Time - Behind the Magic - Page 169. London: Titan Books, October 2013 *The dark palace is featured in the title card for "The Evil Queen".File:220Title.png |-|Production Notes= Production Notes *This location is referred to as the Tower Castle in episode scripts. |-|Prop Notes= Prop Notes *The royal family has two different coats of arms: **One shows a lion, and can be seen on a fireplace,File:215ThatsMine.png castle bannersFile:303IThoughtYou.png and a gazebo. **The other one shows several overlapping squares, with a torch billowing out flames at the top, and a crown. This motif can be seen on castle bannersFile:107TheLossIFeel.png File:303SecondChance.png and a fireplace.File:202ItLooksBeautiful.png ***Regina adopts a differently colored version of this coat of arms after she becomes queen.File:116ClearTheRoads.png File:313LowerShield.png *There is a sculpture of a dragon in Regina's chambers.File:202APortrait.png *Two golden urns can be seen among Regina's wedding gifts.File:202Push.PNG The same urns, but with a different color, are used to decorate Cora's heart vault in her home in "The Doctor".File:205TakeYourPick.png File:205TakeYourPick2.png **The golden version of the urns are reused later in the series: One of them can be seen aboard the Jolly Roger in "Snow Drifts",File:321SkulkingAround.png while the other one doubles as the urn Elsa comes out of in "There's No Place Like Home".File:322UrnShaking.png *The gazebo on the castle grounds from "Bleeding Through",File:318Pavilion.png was reused as the gazebo on Bo Peep's estate.File:402RightOnTime.png The prop/set was redressed for this episode; most noticeably; King Leopold's coat of arms (a lion) was replaced with Bo Peep's crest: a sheep. **The same prop/set is used for the Arendelle Castle gazebo in "The Snow Queen". A new roof was added for this episode.File:407GetBack.png *Snow White's council table in Isaac's alternate reality, is an alternate version of the council table from the Royal Castle in the first season.File:101Group.PNG The new table, is painted in different colors, and Snow White and Prince Charming's crest has been replaced with Regina's crest. Appearances Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage. *The Dark Palace appears in Henry's storybook in "Hat Trick".File:117HatStorybook.png **The Dark Palace is mentioned in the storybook in "Snow Falls".File:103SnowWhitesStory.png References it:Palazzo Oscuro Category:Once Upon a Time Locations Category:Castles